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SubjectRe: GPL version, "at your option"?


On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, Alan Cox wrote:
>
> All the code I submitted I've submitted under the GPL, the real GPL not
> the Linus one.

Sorry, but the "or any later version" is not even _part_ of the GPL, much
less a "real one". It's part of the _suggested_ _header_ of a file, not
the license. Look at it yourself: it comes clearly after the "END OF TERMS
AND CONDITIONS", and it's in the "How to apply these terms to your new
program".

In other words, if you didn't have that "v2 or later" in your original
patches, they were _always_ just the regular GPLv2.

That said, when I clarified (and I do want to make clear that the header
on the COPYING file is a _clarification_, not a change of license) it, I
told people that if they disagreed with me, they should send in patches
saying "v2 or later" to their own code.

Just because there may have been confused people (like you) who thought
that the "later version" thing was part of the license. It's not. It has
never been. The actual _license_ part is very clear:

If the Program specifies a version number of this License which
applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that version or of
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

Note the "IF". Linux _never_ had the "v2 or later" clause, so that "if"
was never an issue, and the clarification on top of the COPYING file
really _is_ just a clarification.

Alan, you need to learn to read, and not make assumptions.

Linus
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